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Most downtowners don’t know about them, but community hubs backed by the United Way have turned into bustling, vibrant focal points in Toronto’s inner suburbs.

The seven centres, completed over the last three-and-a-half years offer a multitude of community-oriented social and health services: everything from primary care, pre-school preparation for moms and tots, settlement counselling for new immigrants, computer literacy, nutrition guidance, diabetes education, dental aid, and outreach programs for at-risk youth. (An eighth hub in Scarborough’s Steeles-L’Amoureaux neighbourhood is planned for the future.)

It’s all under one roof, although not all the hubs offer the same services.

The genesis for the centres was the United Way’s Building Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy, which grew from the agency’s groundbreaking 2004 report Poverty by Postal Code.

The report found swaths of concentrated poverty, unemployment, crime and hunger in neighbourhoods that form a ring around the downtown core.

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After a series of deadly and high-profile shootings in the summer of 2005, the City of Toronto identified 13 priority communities, hotspots within the inner suburbs, which, not surprisingly, suffer from a paucity of social services.

In a bid to address the glaring imbalance between these area and downtown, the United Way began diverting most of its donations to those areas in need. Other sources of funds for the hubs include the three levels of government and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

The centres cost about $40 million to build, and United Way contributes $153,000 a year per hub for operating costs. But the charity isn’t involved in the day to day administration or governance of the hubs.

The hub model, which includes flexible leases and sharing overheads, has made it affordable for agencies to locate in communities they otherwise wouldn’t be able to, explains Pedro Barata, vice-president of communications and public affairs for the United Way.

Serving areas that include Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke, dozens of United Way affiliated agencies “co-locate and collaborate,’’ in the centres, according to Michelle-Ann Hylton, manager at the Bathurst-Finch hub.

Her employer, Unison, the hub’s lead agency, is a community health provider offering primary care, and other health care such as chiropody, social work, and access to dieticians, and lab services. The health-promotion programs include stress-reduction and diabetes awareness.

But the added benefit of the Bathurst-Finch hub is that a doctor can refer someone downstairs to the legal clinic for legal advice, or to other agencies in the centre that provide help with employment or immigration matters, for example, says Hylton.

“It’s great to be in a hub because the services are broader and the access is much greater,’’ she adds.

The Star took a tour of the United Way’s seven hubs over two days this summer, to see how the hub directors and staff are engaging with their communities, and how the services the centres provide are running.

Bathurst-Finch hub

Monday, 2:30 p.m.

Jenny Zawaly, a registered dietician with Unison, leads a group of expectant moms in a prenatal nutrition program. It’s a drop-in where soon-to-be moms who may be at risk for an unhealthy pregnancy or low birth weight baby, learn to prepare healthy meals.

The women stare intently as Zawaly boils large green leaves of kale and strips of asparagus in pans in the hub’s community kitchen.

“Anyone want to taste it plain before I put some lemon on?’’ Zawaly asks the group.

“No, I seem to have this thing now where everything is just so much stronger tasting than what it used to be,’’ says one of the expectant moms, declining Zawaly’s offer.

The other women giggle. “Yup, she’s pregnant,’’ one of them quips.

“If you ever want to stir-fry something, and it starts to get dry, you can add a liquid, like water, and that will help to cook it without adding more oil,’’ Zawaly tells the group.

Rexdale hub

3:45 p.m.

One of the largest of the seven hubs, at 77,000 square feet, Rexdale hub, a retrofitted former high school, serves residents of Rexdale and Jamestown, pockets of which have seen harrowing gun violence.

Youth worker Nick Chamberlain is running a camp for local youth in the hub’s MicroSkills ProTech media centre. They’re working on computers, learning about Photoshop, and how to get a small business going, among other skills.

Meanwhile upstairs in the hub, youth worker and program coordinator Nivedita Lane eagerly shows off the “book bank” run out of the space used by Albion Neighbourhood Services.

The hub’s book bank receives 1,000 gently used books a month from the Children’s Book Bank, a registered charity in Toronto that supports childhood literacy with free books.

“Our book bank is amazing because it’s a chance for (children) to bring these books home, keep them, cherish them, really become a part of their childhood. It really promotes literacy,’’ Lane says, adding the program operates in partnership with three other local services.

Jane Street hub

5:00 p.m.

The violent rain storm that caused extensive damage in Toronto in July is beginning, darkening skies clearly visible through the large windows at the Jane Street hub entrance.

Paulos Gebreyesus, a senior director responsible for the hub, is closing up shop, and staff working at the front reception desk are eager to get out before the weather gets too hairy.

Cindy, 53, who suffers from diabetes and asthma, is on disability and uses a motorized wheelchair to get around. She says the hub is close enough to her home that she can head there in her chair, rather than relying on Wheel Trans. The hub has a doctor, nurse and a place to get lab test results.

“It’s primarily the working poor that use the services in this hub,’’ Gebreyesus explains. “But our services include ensuring there’s something for those who are well, too.’’

Tai chi, yoga and walking clubs are among a host of services the hub offers.

AccessPoint on Danforth

Tuesday, 10 a.m.

Sitting in a room with a small group of women, retired elementary school principal Judith Laskin works on her quilt the “Tree of Life.’’ The colourful quilt is adapted from a photo print of a large lush tree. Laskin is sewing borders around it.

“This is for a friend of mine who’s been through a rough time,’’ explains Laskin, who is part of the quilting group that meets every Tuesday at AccessPoint on Danforth, the second United Way hub to open.

“All of us are retired. To rent a place for us all to meet together would be cost-prohibitive. This is free,’’ Laskin says. To show their appreciation, members of the quilting group have donated money to the hub.

AccessPoint on Danforth runs a number of services, including a child and family drop-in, anger-management training, conflict resolution and a newcomer resource centre.

Dorset Park hub

11:20 a.m.

It’s just before noon and the Dorset Park hub on Kennedy Road is humming with activity. Hub manager, Laura Harper, and Shua Amari, an enthusiastic volunteer at the centre, work their way through the crowded hallways as they show a reporter around.

TheAgincourt Community Services Association, lead agency in the hub, has a contract with the landlord, and subleases to the tenant agencies, who pay the association rent per square foot for offices and shared program space.

Tenants include: the John Howard Society, which serves men who have been in trouble with the law or at risk of being so; CNIB, for the blind or partially sighted, and Tropicana Community Services Association, which, among other things, offers job placements for youth from priority areas.

Amari teaches a healthy cooking class at the hub to young women.

“All of them say (they’re) overweight. I say you’re overweight because of what you’re eating: junk food. I say, “Come! I’ll teach you how to cook healthy food, like broccoli soup, fish, a lot of salads and fruits,’’ Amari explains.

“We’re lucky we have lots of dedicated people who come and just volunteer their time to make this a lively place,’’ Harper says of local residents such as Amari.

Victoria Park hub

12:30 p.m.

With their moms seated nearby, 4-year-olds Swadiksha and Tendai, wave their hands in the air and join in a sing-along, part of a four-week kindergarten preparation program at the Victoria Park hub.

It’s provided by Ontario Early Years, Scarborough centre, and caters to parents and their kids.

“She’s making friends and learning how to be around other children,’’ says Swati Mohanty, 34, who is Swadiksha’s mom.

Tendai’s mother, Yolisa, 49, says her son is learning: independence; how to count; sharing with other children, and how to follow instructions.

Parents learn about the program through word of mouth, referrals from physicians, the Internet, and flyers, says Jeanan Denton, assistant supervisor for the program.

But at-risk youth Ana Mutolo, 16, says the Victoria Park hub offers plenty to engage her age group, too. The Toronto Community Housing resident, who enjoys acting, as well as hip hop and contemporary dancing, first gravitated to the centre, in part to escape the gun violence happening around her a few years ago.

“Everything was crazy; kids killing kids,’’ she recalls.

“There’s a lot to take from here: The support you get from the staff if you need to talk to someone, get help at school, help finding a job . . . there’s so much support, it’s crazy,’’ says Mutolo.

Mid-Scarborough hub

1:30 p.m.

Program coordinator Charanjit Singh designs slick looking flyers to draw children and youth clients to his hub programs: everything from martial arts, fitness training, and documentary film nights, to a sexual health workshop catering to newcomers to Canada and LGBTQ youth.

Self-taught in graphic design, Singh, 24, who started at the mid-Scarborough hub in September, draws about 50 or 60 young people a month to his programs, which target at-risk youth, but are open to everyone.

Light pours in through a sunroof near the reception area of the Eglinton Ave. E. centre, which features a large, living-green wall. Aside from its youth programming, the hub has a seniors’ wellness centre, on-site doctors and nurses, and health promotion and dietician services.

When last summer’s horrific multiple shooting in Toronto Community Housing’s Danzig complex happened, hub staff scrambled to the area to make traumatized residents aware that the hub exists, says Gail Strachan, a spokesperson for the Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities, its lead agency.

“We worked very closely with TCHC to ensure residents in that neighbourhood know we have services here, including a transportation service for those who aren’t able to get to the hub for medical appointments,’’ Strachan says.

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